Vla Love

As published in Resource Magazine (for Wageningen University students and employees), 23 September 2010.

On facebook, there’s a public group named 'You know your Dutch when…' and believe it or not, number one on the list is '… when you love eating Vla.' Well, I have been living in the Netherlands for one year and I have no complaints about the vla culture.
















Vla is my love at first sight. It happened one year ago, at my first dinner in the Netherlands with my Dutch corridor friends in Asserpark student house. After the main course, they told me that it was now time for the most fun part of the dinner... the toetje (dessert). Of course, the toetje was vla.

Back home in Indonesia, there is something called 'fla.' It is a thick sweet sauce made from milk, sugar, egg yolk, and cornstarch. We normally put moderate amount of 'fla' on top of a pudding/jelly, also for dessert. I always like my pudding with lots of 'fla.' So when they said vla, I was expecting a big plate of cold pudding and a bowl of 'fla'. I was surprised to see that what came out from the refrigerator was only something like a milk carton. Yes, that's one litre of vla! Then each of us poured the Vla into small bowls, ate it with spoons, and made the famous 'hmm... hmm' sound just like it's the most delicious thing on earth.

I think having Vla as dessert is smart and strategic... it's sweet, creamy, filling, and most importantly (for the modest student life)... it's cheap! It costs less than two euros per litre and that's enough for 4-5 dessert portions. Moreover, for those people like me who can't make up their mind between chocolate or vanilla flavor, there's the brilliant idea of chocolate-vanilla dubbelvla!

/Steisianasari Mileiva, Indonesia, MSc Development and Rural Innovation